Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of mobile devices and, more particularly, to voice/audio control of mobile devices.
Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices have become ubiquitous. Mobile devices may include any electronic device that is designed to operate on portable power (e.g. a battery) and to be easily carried by a user. Mobile devices may include cell phones, “smart” phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the iTouch™, entertainment devices such as the iPod™ and MP3 players, laptop computers, net top computers, tablet devices such as the iPad™ and Windows® based tablets, etc. Most of these devices include wireless connectivity (e.g. WiFi, cell connection, etc.) and thus can be used as an information source in addition to providing various local applications that can be run on the device directly.
Mobile devices can be controlled through a user interface such as a touch screen, a keyboard that is part of the device or connected to the device, various pointing devices (e.g. mice, touchpads, etc.), etc. More recently, voice control has started to become more common. For example, some of Apple's i-devices (iPhone™, iPad™, etc.) have adopted voice control via the Siri application. The user can pick up the device, press and hold a button, and wait for Siri to respond. When Siri responds, the user can verbally ask a question or provide a command, which Siri will interpret and attempt to satisfy. The act of holding down the button until Siri responds serves to wake up the device (if it is in an idle state), initialize the operating system, and activate the Siri application so that it is ready to accept input.
Some mobile devices have begun to implement a limited voice command activation function when the device is idle. A device can be idle if it appears to the user to be “off” (even though the user knows the device is on because it may accept an electronic communication such as an email, a phone call, or a text message). The idle device generally does not have the display screen turned on, and many internal components can be powered down and need to be initialized for full function of the device. In mobile devices with the limited voice command activation function, the user may say a key word or phrase to cause the device to turn “on” and accept further voice control. For example, one such phrase is “hey google now” used for Android smart phones.
With the limited command activation, the user must pause after uttering the key phrase and await a visual and/or audio indication that the device is ready for further input. While the device is idle, the device has a microphone turned on and is listening with a discrete digital signal processor (DSP) for the key word/phrase. Once the key word/phrase has been recognized, the DSP may signal the rest of the device to initialize (or boot) and then respond to the user when ready. The delay between uttering the key word/phrase and then the desired question/command makes the interface unwieldy. Therefore, the limited command activation is only a small improvement over picking up the device and pressing/holding the button as described above.